Rollators are mobility aid devices that incorporate wheels onto walker-like devices to further improve mobility. Rollators often incorporate a seat, which is incorporated into the support and rigidity structure of the device.
Rollators, while providing important lifestyle and mobility-improving benefits to persons having limited movement capabilities, whether due to age, injury, illness, or disability, suffer from significant disadvantages that limit the benefits provided by the rollators, or introduce new disadvantages or inconveniences to persons making use of the devices. By way of non-limiting example, existing rollators are bulky to store (particularly in communal settings such as assisted living facilities), are difficult to disassemble, are inconveniently bulky to stow (particularly in vehicles), fail to provide adequate support to assist users in rising from a seated position, are frequently unsuited to outdoor conditions or non-ideal terrain, are typically unattractive, with tubular frames and clinical aesthetics, include exposed brake lines which may present a safety hazard or mobility impediment, may be ergonomically predisposed to encourage poor posture and exacerbate osteoporosis, have insufficiently effective brakes, have seats which interfere with ideal walking stride length, do not provide adjustable or variable resistance, do not permit the seat to be removed to increase stride area, do not have ventilated seats, do not provide reversible seat backs, do not provide sufficiently supportive and sized seat backs, are unable to be operated as a light-duty assisted transporter, do not provide independent braking for improved directional changes, do not provide a parking brake which does not slip, are unable to be hung on a hook or rail in a tight bundle or otherwise for compact storage, do not permit significant custom identity personalization by users, or include various combinations of these disadvantages. Those rollators which are designed to collapse into a more compact shape merely fold into a flat configuration, which remains bulky, difficult to manipulate, and inconvenient to stow.
A mobility aid that does not suffer from one or more of the above drawbacks would be desirable in the art.